Optical fiber communication systems typically include optical fiber connectors. For instance, one or more optical fiber connectors can be used to join adjacent segments of optical fiber together for creating optical connections that can be connected, disconnected, and/or reconfigured as desired. For instance, one or more optical fiber connectors can be used for joining an optical fiber segment to an optical device or joining two optical fiber segments. Typical optical fiber connectors include a conventional ferrule designed to hold an optical fiber in an appropriate orientation for optically joining the end of the optical fiber segment to an optical interface of an optical device or another optical fiber segment.
Conventional optical ferrule assemblies include one or more optical fibers that typically extend (i.e., protrude) from a face of a conventional ferrule at an appropriate distance from the face of the ferrule. Thereafter, the end of the optical fibers are shaped and/or polished using a conventional mechanical polishing process to smooth and reduce defects in the face of the optical fiber end for reducing optical insertion loss. In other words, reducing defects in the optical fiber end faces enhances the physical contact between the end faces of mating optical fibers, thereby improving optical coupling at the interface therebetween.